October 2019

It’s Sunday morning and I’m sat in my office at home trying to do some paper work for the practice and I realise I can hear the sound of an electric toothbrush in the bathroom. My wife is out my youngest child is downstairs and my eldest has left the office where he was sat minutes before, and has taken himself off to the bathroom to brush his teeth entirely unbidden. I felt a moment of pride then because although he’s 9 years old, he has an autism diagnosis with demand avoidance and only recently had the confidence to brush his teeth solo as he was terrified he wouldn’t do it well enough and they’d rot or fall out. This got me thinking how can I write a blog based on two minutes of tooth brushing to show that out of your day two minutes isn’t long but when you’re doing something like brushing your teeth it seems like an age. A quick google search for two minutes (but was it two minutes?), and after the initial results of an Iron Maiden song of “Two minutes to midnight” and I’m plunged deep into a worrying, depressing barrage of search results about the doomsday clock being set at two minutes to midnight due to the all the global issues we’re currently facing. At this point I’m concerned I might end up writing a 5000 word essay on political unrest and climate change, still unsure as to where this might be going. Until I happen upon an unexpected and very welcome link that will show me where I’m headed. I click this link on my mobile phone and then sit still in the quiet of my eldest child’s bedroom and do nothing for two minutes. My thoughts clarified, and I came back through to my office where my eldest is sat playing a game on the computer, and started writing. Here’s the link: http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/ I think this website is beautifully simple and extremely powerful as in a world of increased complexity it is a clear and straightforward idea with no complexity and one simple instruction. However, here’s the rub, as I’m writing this as a dentist as a blog for my website/social media there is a dental message in here! This website will make you sit and do nothing for two minutes and time it, which I think is great from a mindfulness perspective, but it will also show you exactly how long two minutes is when you’re brushing your teeth and it’s a lot longer than you think! To clarify I’m not advocating using this website as a toothbrushing timer (there are plenty of Apps for that!). I do think sitting doing nothing for two minutes shows how little of your day this actually is but also how long two a full two minutes really feels. So, I think my message is brush your teeth for a mindful two whole minutes and if you can somehow make this meditative you can hopefully improve your mental and dental health simultaneously.

Dental Practice

Patient Reviews

Dental Practice

October 2019

Mindful Brushing – (do nothing for two minutes)

Mexican Floss

Opening Times